ON THE SAME OCCASION
Composed 1822.—Published 1827
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection" from the edition of 1827 to that of 1843. In 1835 transferred to the "Miscellaneous Poems."—Ed.
Oh! gather whencesoe'er ye safely may
The help which slackening Piety requires;
Nor deem that he perforce must go astray
Who treads upon the footmarks of his sires.
Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but why is by few persons exactly known; nor, that the degree of deviation from due east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each particular case, by the point in the horizon, at which the sun rose upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated.[363] These observances of our ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject of the following stanzas.
When in the antique age of bow and spear
And feudal rapine clothed with iron mail,
Came ministers of peace, intent to rear
The Mother Church in yon sequestered vale;[364]
Then, to her Patron Saint a previous rite 5
Resounded with deep swell and solemn close,
Through unremitting vigils of the night,
Till from his couch the wished-for Sun uprose.
He rose, and straight—as by divine command,
They, who had waited for that sign to trace 10
Their work's foundation, gave with careful hand
To the high altar its determined place;
Mindful of Him who in the Orient born
There lived, and on the cross his life resigned,
And who, from out the regions of the morn, 15
Issuing in pomp, shall come to judge mankind.
So taught their creed;—nor failed the eastern sky,
'Mid these more awful feelings, to infuse
The sweet and natural hopes that shall not die,
Long as the sun his gladsome course renews. 20
For us hath such prelusive vigil ceased;
Yet still we plant, like men of elder days,
Our christian altar faithful to the east,
Whence the tall window drinks the morning rays;
That obvious emblem giving to the eye 25
Of meek devotion, which erewhile it gave,
That symbol of the day-spring from on high,
Triumphant o'er the darkness of the grave.[365]
FOOTNOTES:
[363] St. Oswald's Day is the 8th of August in the Calendar.—Ed.
[364] Doubtless Grasmere Church (itself originally a chapelry under Kendal), the advowson of which was sold in 1573 to the Le Flemings of Rydal. The date of the foundation is prehistoric. There is a thirteenth century window in it, but the tower is older. The church is dedicated to St. Oswald, King of Northumbria.—Ed.
[365] Compare Ode, Intimations of Immortality, l. 117—
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave.—Ed.